SF Solar Incentives: The Waiting Game

While our nation’s labs might be delivering cleantech breakthroughs, the country’s legislatures are facing stagnation. There’s the languishing renewable energy tax credit extension, the California Resource Board’s deteriorating zero-emission vehicle program, and this week San Francisco saw its latest bout of foot-dragging on the city’s solar incentive pilot program.

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On Wednesday in the Legislative Chamber of San Francisco’s City Hall, representatives from SunTech, SolarCity, Luminalt, Occidental Power and DBL Ventures were all on hand to speak out in favor of the solar incentive program, which is still hanging in policy purgatory. The program, which has a pilot budget of $3 million, would grant homeowners a rebate of $3,000 to $5,000 for installing a solar power system. Its budget was frozen last week by Supervisor Jake McGoldrick. Despite the collective call for action now, today’s committee meeting decided to gather more information and reconvene on the issue in two weeks.

McGoldrick has multiple qualms about the solar incentive program, ranging from questions of whether the program had gone through the proper political hoops to issues of whether the $3 million is allowed to be used for unspecified residential solar projects to worries about cost-containment. McGoldrick, for all of his persnickety posturing, had no pretensions. “Some people might be portraying me as one of the bad guys or the bad guy on this issue. So be it.”

The startups present all took turns at the podium during the public comment period. Many stressed that the solar incentive program would create numerous green-collar jobs in poorer sections of the city and leverage millions in private funds to build more solar. Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, made lofty promises of hiring 1,000 to 2,000 new employees in the next four to five years. Rive threw down the gauntlet saying he had planned to build a training academy in the Bayview-Hunters Point area but should the board not pass the incentive program he would be forced to move the academy to San Jose.

Janine Cotter, CEO of Luminalt, a San Francisco-based solar installer, said time is of the essence. The federal investment tax credit is slated to expire at the end of 2008, and PG&E is lowering its solar rebates. “The fact of the matter is the sooner we move on this the more money we have from other sources to leverage to get solar up in San Francisco,” she concluded.

The committee did move to amend McGoldrick’s initial reserve on the funds, allowing the funds to be unfrozen in two weeks time, as opposed to keeping them frozen for the full fiscal year.

But now it’s up to the Public Utilities Commission and the Mayor’s office to make sure that the supervisors have all the information they need so they will no longer have an excuse to drag out discussion on this issue. Many startups have already spent money on marketing their services around this rebate program while San Francisco residents are left to wonder when, if ever, they might see some solar assistance from the city.

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